mikhailp wrote:Could a person who had written such a difficult and fantastic concero for the left hand really not have been able to play it himself???

Dvorak could not play cello, yet wrote the greatest cello concerto. Brahms and Beethoven were not violinists, but pianists, yet they wrote wonderful violin concertos. A composer hears in his mind and writes it. If they do not play the instrument they are writing for, or do not play the instrument as well as a great soloist, they commonly ask a proficient soloist to critique it and make sure it is playable. For example, Brahms turned to the great violinist Joachim for advice with his violin concerto.

All that said, I find Hough's Rachmaninoff concertos unbearable. He plays as fast as he can possibly play, which is very fast indeed, sometimes unable to achieve his own tempi, sometimes racing ahead of the orchestra. He thus loses all sensitivity and nuance in the performances. The speed is supposed to impress us, I suppose. We are to be so awed by the speed that we will overlook the loss of the beauty residing in the music.